


hero (this word you'll never know)

by tocourtdisaster



Category: Bones
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-11
Updated: 2009-12-11
Packaged: 2017-10-04 08:31:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocourtdisaster/pseuds/tocourtdisaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten facts about Jared Booth. Spoilers through "The End in the Beginning."</p>
            </blockquote>





	hero (this word you'll never know)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "And the Hero Will Drown" by Story of the Year.

**i.**  
When Jared is fifteen, he gets his girlfriend pregnant. Abby thinks it's better to tell their parents before they somehow find out on their own. He's there when she tells her parents; her mom cries and her dad gets angry and runs Jared out of the house with a shotgun.

Jared tells his dad alone. He's nursing a black-eye when he boards the plane the next day, heading towards the Indiana military academy where he'll end up spending the next three years of his life.

 

**ii.**  
He only asks Dr. Brennan—Temperance—to the White House Gala because he saw the look in Seeley's eyes earlier that day at the Jeffersonian. Seeley's smitten with the good doctor and Jared has a vindictive side that he very rarely admits to having. If she feels the same as Saint Seeley, she won't say yes, but there it is, transmitted through the phone, and Jared grins as the line is disconnected.

 

**iii.**  
Mom leaves for the grocery store one morning and doesn't come back and then it's just him and Dad and Seeley, and Jared's hardly old enough to understand that Mom's not coming back, let alone the _why_ of it.

 

**iv.**  
The first person he calls is Seeley, even before his head starts to _really_ hurt. His car is wrapped around a telephone pole and all he can think about is his recent promotion and how he'll lose the posting at the Pentagon if this goes on his record.

Seeley takes care of it. This mess stays unofficial. Like always.

 

**v.**  
The first time he sees his daughter, he's on leave from Annapolis for the Christmas holidays and she's three years old and cries and fusses when he tries to talk to her.

"Meghan doesn't like strangers," Abby tells him, her daughter, _his_ daughter, perched on her right hip.

"I'm her father, Abs," he says, his palms itching with how badly he wants to reach out and brush the red curls out of Meghan's eyes.

"She's never seen you before in her life," Abby says, absently tucking Meghan's hair behind her ear. "You're a stranger."

 

**vi.**  
Cam manages to get a hold of him before he's even left New Delhi, his bike still crated up because there's been some sort of issue with customs. The call comes through the consulate and if it had come even just a few hours later, Jared never would have heard.

For as long as Jared's known Cam, she's never been one to pull punches; this time is no different. "Seeley's sick," she tells him, forgoing a greeting all together. "Brain tumor. He's been taken in for emergency surgery."

"I'll be on the next plane," he says, his heart thumping painfully in his chest. He and Seeley haven't always been on the best of terms, but Seeley's his brother and the last thing Jared ever wanted was for him to get sick.

He worries his brand new St. Christopher medallion all the way to D.C., praying that Seeley will be okay.

 

**vii.**  
He goes sixteen days without shaving after receiving his discharge papers. He knows that most people would say it's because he's rebelling against the institution that threw him by the wayside, but he says it's just because he's just too lazy to be bothered.

Only in his more honest moments can Jared admit that maybe, just maybe, he is trying to rebel against the Navy's rules, no matter the fact that he's no longer in the Navy.

 

**viii.**  
Jared never wanted to join the military, but in the Booth family, it's kind of expected. That doesn't mean he has to go the traditional route. The Booth men been have all been either pilots or infantry; Jared goes into intelligence and sees more of the world than Seeley or Dad can ever imagine. He only wishes it wasn't all classified; if he could just explain to them what he's done then maybe they'd be proud of him, despite the fact that he's never seen combat.

 

**ix.**  
The mother of his child marries another man while Jared's still at Annapolis. Her new husband's lawyer serves Jared with papers, petitioning for adoption rights, asking for Jared to sign away all of his parental rights. The big manila envelope goes up in flames that same night.

 

**x.**  
Right after Mom leaves, when Jared still thinks she's just gone on a trip and will be back soon and things will get back to normal, he refuses to sleep anywhere but in Seeley's bed because Mom's not there to check under his bed and in the closet for monsters. Seeley checks every night before tucking Jared in, but the monsters are sneaky and he's sure Seeley's missed at least one since he didn't look for very long before giving the all clear.

So every night, Jared plucks up his courage and sprints across the dark bedroom, sure some monster is going to grab his ankle at any minute, and he doesn't stop running until he's in Seeley's room, where no monster would dare to live because they'd be too scared of his big brother.

"Go back to your own bed, Jared," Seeley says every night, barely opening his eyes.

And Jared says the same thing every night: "Can't. Monsters."

And Seeley grumbles and groans, but he always lets Jared under the covers, even if he never shares his pillow.

**

**the end**


End file.
